Atmosphere

The Earth has a mantle of carbon dioxide (CO2). This mantle is fragile but retains it's consistency due to the delicate balance between plate tectonics and volcanic activity. The surface of Earth experiences considerable movement. The tectonic plates collide with each other, and as they do so carbonate deposits are pushed deep into the crust where they start to decompose. The decomposition process releases CO2. When there is volcanic activity these CO2 deposits are forced up to the surface, replenishing the atmosphere.

The current level of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere is right for life as we know it, this especially goes for larger and more complex lifeforms as ourselves. The larger and more advanced a lifeform, the more vulnerable it will be to this CO2 balance. As the volcanic activity in the past has been significantly higher than today so was the amount of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, therefor larger and more advanced lifeforms did not exist back then, though relatively simpler and smaller lifeforms could cope and flourished for a very long time alone.

As we humans still walk this Earth it is right to conclude that yet another pole shift won't destroy human kind. We will survive, as will most of nature survive. As the Earth's CO2 mantle is a major part of our atmosphere, and traps the warmth of the sun, we can expect, due to the sudden rise in tectonic movement and volcanic activity when the Earth's poles shift and thereafter, to stand witness to a dynamic and relatively speedy re-build-up of the Earth's CO2 mantle. A build-up speed which could not take place without the significant increase in volcanic activity and earthquakes.

As it has always been it will become again. The CO2 will be used by plants and other CO2 dependent lifeforms and eventually temperatures will return to 'normalcy' due to the increase in CO2. Temperatures will return to normalcy sooner than the sun will warm your face again (as it is colder at a clear night than when it is a cloudy one). I don't know the results of the interaction between thick clouds, CO2 levels, heavy rains and temperatures exactly though.

Offered by Michel.